In France, 8% of babies are in a hurry to see the light of day. We speak of “prematurity” when the birth occurs before 35 weeks of pregnancy, of “great prematurity” when the baby arrives before 31 weeks of pregnancy, or even of “very great prematurity” when the happy event occurs before the end of the 29th week. of pregnancy. This condition is linked to a number of health problems: premature children are more likely than others to suffer from hyperactivity, autism, school difficulties …
Researchers at King’s College London (in Great Britain) have just made a worrying discovery: the brains of premature children age faster than average. To come to this conclusion, the scientists worked with 328 people born prematurely, before the end of the 33rd week of pregnancy on average. These volunteers had to undergo an MRI scan at the age of 20 and then at the age of 30. In parallel, a control group consisted of 232 adults born at term.
Less gray matter in certain areas of the brain
Results ? British scientists discovered that at the age of 30, adults born prematurely had a lower volume of gray matter than that observed in the control group, which they said revealed that the brain was aging faster than average: “in particular, we have observed a lower volume of gray matter in certain areas of the brain linked to emotions and memory”.
“Further studies will be necessary to determine the impact of this early brain maturation on the daily life of people born prematurely” add the researchers, who have published their work in the specialist journal Neuroimage.
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